Hamlet Essay, Research Paper
The story Hamlet is about man s struggle with revenge, when tragedy enters their life. It deals with true consequences of our choices, when we decide what to do about it. The story demanstrates of that when man is obessed with revenge it creates a battle in our own minds of right verses wrong, and good verses evil. Having the ability to think amd what we think about creates who we are and what we become. From the beginning of the play, Hamlet’s intention and obligation is to have revenge on his father’s murderer. Yet when opportunity arises, Hamlet does not take action. There is something inside Hamlet that stops him from taking action against Claudius. Through a series of evaluations, Hamlet finally concludes that he must stop thinking and hesitating so much, and he feels that he must take action in the form of “bloody”revenge upon his father’s murderer (4.4.66). In the first part of Hamlet’s soliloquy, Hamlet tries to justify his over-thinking by stating that God intended man to be on a higher level of thinking, but he realizes that he is taking his theory too far. Hamlet asserts that God gave man the”capability and godlike reason”(4.4.38) to transcend “bestial oblivion” (4.4.40). Hamlet uses the commonly perceived superiority over animals to justify delaying his revenge. His guess is that, because of his God-given ability to reason, he has an obligation to think about his actions, rather than relying on instinct.
Hamlet has two options, either to not think at all or to think “too precisely” (4.4.41). These choices parallel each other because neither gets anything accomplished. Hamlet thinks too much about killing Claudius,thereby diverting his attention from taking action. On the other hand, the possible negative outcomes of acting on instinct would be far worse than the delay of his revenge. For example, had Hamlet acted on instinct, he would not have had the time to prove Claudius’ guilt, and he could have killed an innocent man. This portion of Hamlet’s soliloquy serves as a logical appeal, citing traditional and common beliefs to rationally justify Hamlet’s method of thinking. After justifying his thoughts, Hamlet looks to Fortinbras’ ideas and actions as a model for how he should behave, in thought and action. Although Hamlet does not know Fortinbras’ very well, he describes him as “delicate and tender”(4.4.48) yet “great”(4.4.53) with a “divine ambition” (4.4.49). Here, Hamlet appeals to his emotions by describing Fortinbras’ with a tone of jealous respect. In this portion of his speech, Hamlet expresses his jealousy of Fortinbras’ ability to take action; Hamlet idolizes Fortinbras’ ability to uphold his honour because Hamlet is still unable to overcome his hesitation. The cost of upholding Fortinbras’ honour is 20,000 lives, while Hamlet’s price for maintaining honour is only one life, Claudius’. This difference in price enhances Hamlet’s guilt for having delayed revenge because Hamlet realizes he